7 words you should never say to your client

Was wondering if that was a typo about Dominos. It would seem sales of 54 Million would barely pay the light bill.

LOL Odd mood today I am in.

Magnificent piece. No words to add. ;-)

Every one of these 7 words is correct. And everytime we fall into the same trap, again and again!! The worst word is the last one "yes" when we mean NO! And this is just to get the job, just because the client has managed to wear us down, just because we cant afford to wait another nail-biting day! And this is why the job never gets done. "While you are doing our online marketing campaign, could you create a tagline!! Its just a tagline!"
Very well written Phyllis. Shows the immense experience you have had! Will keep this taped onto my desk as a constant reminder!
rgds...Sudhir

..very good article Phyllis. Enjoyed reading it, learned from it, and definitely sharing it.

Agree with everything except Words 1 and 3:

"Wait" often *should* be said to clients, when they want to move forward without really having "listened to what customers say" or "watched what customers do." "Oh, we know all that already." Oh, yeah? Show me the data. Sure, we'll wait.

"360" While multi-whatever may be a "duh" to a lot of us in the agency world, change can come more glacially on the client side. Too often it is up to us to ask, "So, what other elements are in the works?" only to find that our client contact either doesn't know, or (worse) doesn't care! "I'm going to focus my energies on the areas where I can make a difference" and "I'm not going to worry about things I can't control" may be good prescriptions for personal sanity, they are recipes for failure in marketing. As trusted advisers to our clients, we need to be careful not to overestimate how much integration is a reality in their world, just because the value of it is so obvious in ours.

And, to Ann's point, while "can't" is usually not a good idea (except when discussing unrealistic expectations regarding budget, schedule, etc.), as a cousin of "no," it can be very important to say, "We're not sure that's the best way to accomplish you're objectives, but here are some alternatives we'd like you to consider." An excellent post on the mindset around doing this comes from Hot Studio's Margot Merrill Fernandez:

Producer, Project Manager… What's in a Name?

http://hottub.hotstudio.com/2009/10/producer-project-manager-whats-in-a-name/

"Yes" is definitely a word that needs discretion! Fortunately, I work with some good folks that understand the word, "no."

I turned down a client project for this summer because I know from last summer that I'll honestly be too busy to handle it.

Phyllis, you said it best, "Sometimes "no" is the strongest, most honest word you can say."

The most impoortant word not to say is "can't". I get upset when I hear that from a company because it almost always really means "we won't do that".